Far from Home
by sunsetstargazer
Summary: Kara Riley gets plucked from her everyday life by a wormhole and thrown violently into the future of aliens and starships on the USS Enterprise.
1. Chapter 1

Far from Home

 _A/N This is about my o/c Kara Riley, 17 years old, who gets plucked from modern day into the future by a wormhole that the starship enterprise is investigating and finds out she can't get back, how will she cope with life in the future when she is dropped onto a ship 50,000 lightyears from earth. It's set about 2 years into the Enterprises 5 year mission to explore deep space._

Chapter 1

Kara sat in her bedroom scrolling through Tumblr on her laptop, she could hear her little brother Jayden playing on the PlayStation in his room down the hallway, it was a typical evening for her, she'd just turned 17 recently and she wasn't really sure what she's going to do with her life, she's smart and has always got high grades in school, so she knows she has a lot of options but she's never been able to settle down to one idea.

Her mum had left half an hour ago to go to work for the night, money has been tight recently and even though Kara has gotten a job at a local restaurant it's not been enough so her mum has taken on a second job in the evenings just to keep them up to date with rent and make sure they have enough food for the three of them. Her dad left when Jayden was still a baby and that was 10 years ago now so it's been difficult, but she has always found solace in the imaginary worlds of her movies and books. Her mum doesn't get it and is always telling her that she should be out with friends but Kara never liked to have a great deal of friends, just a few close ones that she talks to regularly online and that is enough for her.

She looks up from the screen when she hears a strange whistling noise coming from the hallway, thinking it's probably Jayden messing around she gets up pulling on her favourite hoody and walks out of her room. She freezes this can't be Jayden she can see his door and it's still shut, and she sure as hell hopes he stays in there, there is a dot of bright light about 3 feet off the floor that is slowly getting brighter and bigger. When it reaches about 5cm in diameter she notices that it seems to be spinning and a slight breeze has started to wrap itself around her pushing her towards the light. She knows that this is when she should be running away but she's too terrified to move and it feels as though her sock clad feet are glued to the floor. As the breeze gets stronger pieces of paper are sucked towards into the slowly forming vortex which is now almost 40cm wide and swirly violently, when the first piece of paper hits it the light flashes even brighter and the paper vanishes.

Finally, it's as though all at once Kara's brain finally breaks free of the shock that it had been stuck in and she tries to step back, turning towards her bedroom door and trying to get away but the wind picks up suddenly to a speed she wouldn't have thought possible without ripping the walls apart. She can only imagine this is what it's like to be stood inside a tornado because she is being forced forwards and she has no time to try and grab hold of anything to anchor her. Her feet slide along the floor roughly before she suddenly plunges head first into the light. The light encompasses her body and she has to shut her eyes against it, the feeling of being inside it is almost unbearable it's as though every part of her is being crushed all at once and she's spinning and falling all at once, she's certain that she's going to pass out if it doesn't end when all at once everything stops and she's really falling now. Panicking she puts her hands out to try and grab something not even thinking anymore just acting as she falls through the air, all too soon she feels herself collide with something hard and she's knocked out instantly.


	2. Chapter 2: Hide and Seek

Far from Home

 _A/N Another chapter now, what will happen to Kara?_

Chapter 2

"Keptin the wormhole seems to be collapsing, several smaller branches have split off from the main stem… the mouth of one of them is open in the engine room, no reports of any damage though" Chekov said whirling round in his chair to give his report to the captain. They had been studying this particular wormhole for the past month as they believed that it may be linked to the past and they wanted to learn all that they could about it before it collapsed.

"Thank you, Mr. Chekov" Kirk replied. He hit the button on his control pad next to him to contact engineering "Scotty we're picking up a branch of the wormhole that has opened up in engineering, can you see anything down there?".

"No sir, we cannae detect it's exact location we know it's in here somewhere but until we can pin-point it we are relying on searching for it the old-fashioned way, I'll keep ya updated sir" Scotty replied through the comms shouting as usual.

"Ok thank you Mr. Scott" he replied cutting off the connection and turning back to the main view-screen.

Kara woke to a blinding pain in her head, she couldn't work out where she was the surface beneath her felt cool and hard, probably metal, she was going to have to open her eyes if she wanted any more information but wanted to put it off as long as possible. She tried to pull her left arm up to feel her head but the stabbing pain that ran through her wrist and hand stops that course of action before it gets any further. Instead she tries the other arm, successfully bringing her hand to her forehead, and feels a warm sticky liquid running down her face; blood. She knows that there's no more time to spare, and so using her good hand to shield her eyes a bit, she peels her eyelids back slowly groaning at even the low light level that is there.

She shifts her head to the side and realises that she is laying on some sort of metal mesh, it looks like it could be a walkway judging by the railings on either side of her, she looks down at her left arm as it gives another throb and is horrified to see that it is bent slightly just above the wrist and her hand and half her forearm is bruised and swollen, it's definitely broken from when she fell. But what was that weird vortex. The only time she's ever heard of anything like it is in old sci-fi movies that she's watched but those are not real, she thinks at least.

She's not given much time to ponder this before she hears footsteps approaching and sits up, looking behind her despite the spinning it causes in her head, she sees the shadows of two people approaching around the corner. She can't be found, she doesn't even know where she is, this could be some kind of top secret government facility, they'll kill her if they find her. Panicking she looks around and notices that she's only a short distance from the ground under the walkway and so carefully she slides herself to the side carefully cradling her broken arm on her lap and slips under the railing onto the floor and rolls under the walkway so that she is only just visible through the mesh she stays as still as possible praying that they won't see her in the low light.

The people appear just as she has managed to get into position, and she has to clamp a hand over her mouth and hold her breath to stay silent as she catches a glimpse of them. They both appear male but she's certain that neither of them are human, one of them has dark green skin and the other had pronounced ridges of skin sticking out of his forehead and what looked like tiny horns on the ridges, 'what kind of place is this?'. They stop almost directly above her and the green-skinned one pulls something off his belt and begins to wave it around pressing buttons, maybe it's some sort of scanner, she really hopes not because it may be able to detect her but luckily they look up instead towards the light that she has just fallen out of. The other pulls something off his belt and speaks into it, surprising Kara the voice that she hears is spoken in English "Scotty we've found the mouth of the wormhole, it looks like it's closing already and nothing's come through, it looks like we've gotten lucky".

"Good we don't want to be dealing with something from the past coming through it just gives me a mountain of paperwork" a voice comes back in response through the small device, some kind of phone Kara thinks.

She doesn't dare to breathe until the two have walked back the way they came and she is alone again. As soon as their footsteps die away she feels herself building towards a panic attack as her breaths become harsher and faster. She couldn't have just gone through a wormhole could she, that seemed to be the only explanation but based on what they just said she must have travelled to the future. This couldn't be happening they were going to kill her if they found her, she had to leave now if she wants to survive.

With this thought in her head she looked around and saw what looked like a panel that she could open set into the wall and so she crouches low and starts to move towards it as fast as she dares. Reaching it she sees there is a handle on the bottom and so giving it an experimental tug she jumps back when it easily slides up and open revealing a long tunnel ahead of her, it was too low for her to stand in but she crawls in and pulls that hatch shut behind her. The tunnel is surrounded by what looks like metal pipework and she guesses it must be some kind of maintenance place for the facility. She begins to crawl along the tunnel having to hold her arm at an awkward angle to keep it from hitting anything because her forearm is now hanging limp, completely useless and she can't really feel it anymore. As she reaches an opening in the tunnel she sees a similar hatch on each side wondering if she should get out but decides that she should get further away from where she arrived in this place before daring to exit the tunnel where she seems relatively safe if only for now at least.

Spock is studying the readings taken of the opening to the wormhole that was found in engineering, he notices a slight discrepancy and upon further investigation he reveals something that warrants immediate investigation. He walks up to stand beside Kirk and Bones at the captain's chair "Captain forgive me for the intrusion on your debate with Dr McCoy but I have been examining the readings of the opening to the wormhole and I require permission to investigate further in engineering".

"What are you going on about Spock? Just tell us what you've found" Kirk said with the tone of someone who was used to the Vulcans long winded way of getting to the point.

"I have reason to believe that a person may have come through the wormhole, there were only two crew members present when the scans were taken but I have discovered that a third individual was present whose signature was initially masked by the presence of the wormhole but I am certain another being was there" Spock stated calmly hands clasped behind his back.

"Geez Spock so you're saying there is an intruder on-board and they've been lose for the last half an hour" Bones said incredulously.

"That would appear to be correct yes doctor" Spock said.

"Well let's get down there, we don't know if this person is hostile or if they were sucked into the wormhole accidentally, either way we have to find them, Sulu you have the conn" Kirk said standing and striding towards the turbolift with Spock and Bones close behind.

When they reach engineering, Scotty seems surprised to see them and rushes over "Captain I wasn't expecting ya, what can I do for you?".

"Spock looked at the scans that were taken of the wormhole and has discovered that a person that came through the wormhole and gone undetected until now. Their life signs were masked by the wormhole, but now that it has collapsed we should be able to find them." Kirk said hurriedly.

"Right I'll send out teams to search the area in case they're still in here" Scotty said turning to a nearby crewmember and yelling at him to get the teams together.

"Good, we are going to go to where the wormhole was originally and see if we can find anything more about the individual" Kirk said heading towards the back of engineering.

McCoy stops on the walkway and crouches down noticing a patch of the metal appears darker in colour, reaching out to touch it his fingers come back red. He pulls his tricorder of his belt and scans the substance suspecting he already knows what the reading will be. The scans confirm it, human blood.


	3. Chapter 3

Far from Home

 _A/N Continuing on will she get found in this chapter? Please read and review so I know what you think_

Chapter 3

Kara has passed three openings in the tunnel and by the time she gets to the fourth she decides it's time to get out because someone could be following her by now, she takes a risk and opens one of the panels, luckily it opens into what looks like some kind of supply cupboard, she stands up in it and is relieved to find it empty. She begins to pull boxes off the shelves and finds that one contains a variety of different coloured shirts. She knows that her broken arm is more of a hindrance than a help right now so she pulls out one of the shirts that looks to have long enough sleeves. She pulls it round her shoulders so that the sleeves hang down her front, and then ties the sleeves into knots using her right hand and her teeth so that it is now holding her arm at the wrist and the elbow making a kind of sling that will hold her arm out of the way.

Not wanting to spend to long in any one place she moves to the door, to her surprise the two doors automatically slide open making her jump back, but she forces herself to recover and step through. This time she finds herself in what looks a corridor but it looks much sleeker than where she's been so far, the floor is black and the curved walls and ceiling are white and everything is polished so much you can see your reflection in it.

She is taken aback though when she sees her own reflection, not having realized how bad it is, the whole left side of her face is covered in trails of blood and blood has dripped down her hoody as well and looking back she realizes that she has been leaving the odd drop of blood behind in her wake. Whatever kind of aliens that live here will almost definitely be able to follow that trail, she needs to stop the bleeding so she searches her pockets and luckily finds that her scarf is still bundled up in her pocket, pulling it out she reaches up and winds it round her head tucking the end in because she can't tie it off with only one hand she jogs up the corridor. When she rounds the corner a door swishes open beside her that she hadn't noticed and she again freezes, like when she faced the wormhole originally, except now she is looking out a large window straight out into what appears to be space whizzing past.

"Jim" Bones calls waiting for him and Spock to walk back over. "Look at this, whoever was in here is injured, I've checked and its human blood, genetic markers indicate that they are from about 250 years ago" Bones says frowning.

"Damn, ok well at least we know what we're dealing with, if they are from that far in the past then they will be from a time where humans had barely even gone into space, so they're probably going to panic, this could go on for a while if we can't find them on the sensors" Kirk says running a hand through his hair looking around as though the person was going to just appear.

"The crewmen in attendance reported that the wormhole had appeared approximately 6m up from this walkway the intruder's injuries were likely sustained when they would have fallen from there" Spock said glancing upwards.

"A fall from that height could do some serious damage to a human, we need to find them quickly or we may be looking for a body" Bones said with a grimace thinking about the potential injuries that the person could have sustained depending on how they landed, at least he knew they were alive since they weren't still here.

Spock had also opened his tricorder and without warning climbed over the railing and down onto the warp core casing underneath and crouching to look under the walkway.

"Commander" Kirk says looking slightly bemused.

"There is more blood underneath the walkway, it would appear that they concealed them self under here when the crewmen came to investigate, there is also more drops leading in this direction" Spock says indicating towards a Jeffrey's tube.

"Scotty we're looking for a human who has come from about 250 years in the past, we know that they're injured and we are currently following them into the Jeffrey's tubes, try and get a location on any humans not part of the crew then send us the location" Kirk says into his communicator before vaulting over the railing and opening the hatch to see a trail of blood leading in. Looking back to check Bones and Spock are following before he crawls in going as fast as he can on hands and knees.

"Ok, Kara it's just space come on, this is the future after all, no need to panic, just keep moving until you've got a plan" Kara mumbles to herself to try and calm down, not able to tear her eyes away from the window. The swishing of a door opening in the corridor is what finally spurs her into action, she runs over to a door at the far end of the room and rushing through it, glad when it leads to another tube similar to the last one, at least no-one seemed to be in these ones.

Kirk stops abruptly when he sees blood on the handle of one of the exits to the tunnel, "They must have left through here" he says to the others before opening the hatch and stepping out into a corridor.

"Right where next" Bones says looking around.

"The blood seems to stop here, I don't know which way they could have gone from here. Mr. Scott what have you got for me" Kirk says the last bit into his communicator.

"I've got a location for you, they were in the observation lounge next to you and now they're in a Jeffrey's tube again heading towards the bridge, I can direct you to head them off before they make it there." Scotty replies.

They take off at a run following Scotty's directions and wait at the hatch where the person should be about to emerge from.


	4. Chapter 4: A Confrontation of Sorts

Far from Home

 _A/N The meeting finally. This is not the end of this fic though I should add. Please read and review so I know what you think_

Chapter 4

Kara can't work it out but she suddenly has the feeling that someone is nearby and so she decides to go left at the next opening and get out of the tube. She has to drop down from the ceiling and ends up in what looks like someone's bedroom. Looking round this new room she sees something that could be useful in the form of a golf club, which she picks up in her good hand and gives a few experimental swings. She doesn't want to have to fight anyone but knows that she can't hide forever so she might as well give herself as big an advantage as she can, and do it on her own terms with at least something to feel like she has a chance.

She creeps up to the door of the room and leans against the wall next to it feeling pretty much exhausted by this point, she swings the golf club in front of the door to get it to open and quickly leans out. She sees three men standing in the corridor looking up at a hatch she realises her feeling had been right and that these men must be the ones following her she pulls her head back in for a moment to collect herself and then steps out into the otherwise deserted corridor.

"I'm guessing it's me that you're expecting to come out of there, you know you guys look like you're waiting for a rabbit to come out of a hole" she says trying to sound a lot more confident than she feels.

As she expected they all turn around at once and look at her, she lifts the golf club in readiness knowing she can't look like that much of a threat with a light blue cotton scarf wrapped around her head and a gold shirt tied to her arm holding it in place. Not to mention the fact she didn't even have any shoes on and her hoody was covered in blood but she'd be damned if she was going to let that stop her from going down without a fight.

She expected guns to be pulled or maybe for them to charge at her, some sort of attack seemed inevitable. What she wasn't expecting was for them to just stand there. She looks at each of them individually taking in what she can about them. The one on the left has a blank face that seems to have no emotion whatsoever but she can feel him analysing her with his gaze, she's pretty sure his ears are pointed so she decides he is probably another alien like the ones from before. The one on the right looks concerned which surprises her she thought they wanted to kill her and has his hand on his belt reaching for something like what the aliens from earlier had used to scan the wormhole. Finally, the one in the middle looks a bit shocked if anything, she recognises the shirt he's wearing to be the same as the one she currently has on her arm.

Again, she is the one to break the silence with a weak attempt at a joke since they don't seem hostile for now "Sorry I didn't know you were going to be wearing this otherwise I would have gone with a different colour but I didn't have much time for fashion choices" she says gesturing to her arm. The gold-shirted man's eyes soften a bit at that and she hopes it was the right move.

"No, it's a good look otherwise you'd match these two" he says pointing to the two men with him, one glares and one arches an eyebrow at the retort.

The man who'd looked concerned, tries to take a step forward holding his hands up, but she panics swinging the golf club around to point at him threateningly "Don't come any closer, I don't want to hit you but I will. There were aliens back in that other room, and I heard them saying that the wormhole came from the past so I know this is the future and since we're in space I'm guessing we're a long way in the future, so all I need is you to send me back from where you took me from and I won't say anything about seeing any of this I promise." She says pleading with them.

"We cannot do that, the wormhole has collapsed, even if we could send you back in we cannot say for definite where you would be sent, it is unlikely you will be able to return your original time" said the pointy-eared one.

At hearing this Kara feels her heart begin to flutter in her chest and she feels like she can't breathe as tears threaten to fall from her eyes that means she's lost everything she's ever known, but she notices the concerned one using her distress to sneak forwards again and she snaps back to focus on what's going on. "F-fine if that's the case put me back on earth and I will disappear you don't have to kill me I swear I'll never say anything I'll live in the woods or something but please don't kill me". As she says this she starts to shake as her emotions overwhelm her and has to focus on holding up the club feeling it's her last defence right now.

"Sweetheart, we're not going to kill you, I swear that is the last thing we want to do, we just want to help you" the one who had stepped forward says in a distinctive Southern American accent, this takes her by surprise, being English herself she didn't often meet any Americans, thinking about it the voice that she heard through the phone thing earlier had sounded Scottish.

Lowering her club ever so slightly "Are you human?" she says tilting her head slightly and looking at him, she quickly adds "Not that there's anything wrong with being an alien I guess pointy".

This gets a laugh out of the concerned one "No sweetheart, I was born and raised in Georgia in the USA back on earth, pointy over there is a Vulcan, and I have to say he can be a bit annoying but I don't think that has anything to do with him being an alien he's just like that on his own" he says.

Kara smiles softly feeling a bit more relaxed "So what about you, you hiding something weird under that fashionable shirt of yours?" she says looking at the last man.

"No, I'm human as well, Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise but you can call me Jim, that's Spock or if you want I don't mind if you call him pointy and that's Bones though he probably won't want you to call him that since technically his names Leonard McCoy but I never use it… what about you?" Jim says, Bones scowling at him again for the comment.

"Bones, I like it" she says testing out the name and earning a smile from Bones, pausing she looks around at them deciding it can't hurt "and I'm Kara Riley, though I don't have any fancy titles to go with it unfortunately since I'm only 17" she says.

"Kara, nice name and only 17 I thought you looked quite young, so now that we're all formally introduced maybe you could put that down and let us help you I promise that we will not hurt you in any way, in fact Bones here is the Chief Medical Officer on board" He says looking her straight in the eyes, somehow she can sense that he means it, and after a brief pause as she considers it she lowers the club so it is down by her side.

"Ok" she concedes. Jim walks up holding out his hand and she passes over the club which he takes and quickly sets it aside on the floor. "So are you a doctor or something then, I know he said you're chief something or other but I don't know what that means" she says still wary looking at Bones.

"Yes, for 15 years now, so do you think I can have a look at you now, there's no rush but it looks like you could do with some help hmmm" he hummed softly to her slowly stepping forwards as though he's approaching a skittish horse.

"I guess yeah, I fell out of that wormhole thing pretty hard, and landed on my wrist, I looked at it earlier, it's definitely broken… but it doesn't hurt anymore though I know that's probably not a good sign" she says and judging by Bones face he doesn't like the sound of it either.

"No not really, what about your head? You've lost a lot of blood, that's how we found you actually" Bones says reaching up to begin unwinding her scarf.

"Yeah, I didn't realise it was dripping so much, I think my head must have hit the railing or something on the way down I don't remember exactly" this doesn't look to have re-assured Bones much either but she's past caring now.

"Well it's not bleeding anymore at least" Bones says pulling the scanner thing off his waist that he was reaching for earlier and detaches a piece which he brings up towards her head, but she puts her hand up grabbing his wrist and pushing him away.

"What is that?" she says suspicious again.

"It's a tricorder I use it to check your vital signs and get an idea of your injuries, look it won't hurt" he says waving it over Jim and shows her the screen which does indeed come up with what looks like the readout of a heart monitor as well as other things she doesn't recognise and Jim smiles at her to prove he's ok.

"Alright sorry just feeling jumpy, go ahead I guess" Kara say and patiently stands still while he scans her with it, he frowns at the screen but doesn't look too worried. "Did I pass?" she says softly feeling herself shaking a bit and her headache resurfacing as well as a tingling in her arm that she hopes isn't the pain coming back.

"Yeah kid you passed but I'd like to get you to sickbay so I can check you properly, can I see your arm as well?" he asks. Nodding Kara carefully starts to untie the gold fabric from her arm the bones shift slightly in her hand and she feels herself turning pale but she grits her teeth determined to finish. She's so focussed on undoing the knot she doesn't notice that Bones has stepped in right next to her. His warm hands come up and push aside her freezing cold ones and he undoes the shirt so gently she barely feels it. Soon her arm is free from the shirt and he takes the shirt from around her shirt tossing it towards Jim with a smirk who catches it and tosses it to the floor with the golf club.

Her arm is still covered by the sleeve her hoody but she can already see that her fingers are the same white colour as the walls around them. Bones carefully begins to roll up her sleeve holding her arm carefully. The arm that is revealed looks nothing like her arm did before it's still bent just above the wrist but now she notices that the hand itself looks crooked and the whole forearm is swollen with livid purple bruising wrapped around her wrist and hand.

She flinches wanting to pull it away because it's beginning to hurt again but he mumbles to her quietly not really saying anything in particular just "s'alright you're ok darling", but it's comforting enough that she feels herself pulling in a deep breath and her stomach untwists itself slightly allowing her to relax. Looking around she notices Kirk looks almost guilty though she can't work out why and that Spock looking exactly as he has the entire time stoic and unfeeling, it's starting to become unnerving.

"What's up with Pointy I don't think he's even blinked, it's getting a bit creepy, is he plotting something" she says uncertainty clear in her voice. It seems she didn't need to worry because Jim laughs so hard at her comment that he has to lean on the wall, even while Bones looks up from her arm to glare at him. Spock just lifts his eyebrow which she guesses is meant to be a response.

"I am half Vulcan, and half Human, Vulcan's do not use emotion in the same way humans do, we prefer to keep control of them so that they do not interfere with our judgement and to allow us to remain logical. It may seem disconcerting but I assure you I am not 'plotting' as you put it" Spock replies almost looking like he's smirking.

"Oh, that was perfect kid he's going to be grumpy for a week now, but you've got him down to a tee" Bones said, "Right kid this arm is definitely broken so how about you walk with me to the med bay and I fix this up for you".

"What do you mean fix it up, it's broken you can't just snap your fingers and fix it" Kara said.

"Kid that's where you're wrong maybe in the time you come from a break like this would mean months to heal but I should have this arm back to normal in a few days for you, so what do you say?" he says looking into her eyes again and she nods again.


	5. Chapter 5: Grand Tour

Far from Home

 _A/N Sorry for the longer delay on this chapter, here's the next update._

Chapter 5

Kara's p.o.v.

Jim and Spock are walking a few steps ahead of me and Bones walks next to me, glancing at me occasionally. This whole situation feels surreal I've still not got any shoes on and I'm holding my broken arm against my chest with my other hand and I can see dried blood on my hoody and it feels uncomfortable against my skin where it is down the side of my head and neck. As we come around a corner I see another person walking towards us, they have antenna on their forehead and blue skin, she pauses mid-stride to stare at them and they look back at her looking equally as shocked.

Bones looks back realising that I've stopped and gestures for me to follow "He's Andorian don't worry there are a lot of different species here but no-one is going to hurt you, I promised you that and I don't break promises like that". I take a deep breath and look back at the man trying to offer him a smile.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you" I offered and the man just nods returning the smile a little awkwardly before continuing on after nodding to Jim, who I remember now is the captain so I guess he's probably in charge around here.

I don't get much time to consider any of this before the two ahead of me turn and go through a doorway, following them in I recognise that this must be the med bay that they have been talking about. It looks kind of like the basic idea of what hospitals looked like back in 2017, but that is where the similarities ended. There are machines that I couldn't even guess as to what they might do and a couple of figures on the beds around room, most of whom appear to be human but I'm not really sure of anything anymore. I hadn't even noticed that I was still stood in the doorway when a voice from across the room made me jump.

"Come on kid we haven't got all day" Bones calls from across the room and I force my legs to move one after the other until I'm standing only a couple of feet away from the bed that Bones is busy moving things around by. I pause there feeling like that's close enough for now and look around at the other people in the room, all of whom seem to be staring at me now. I'm beginning to panic again because this can't be happening, I'm trapped with them and they could kill me at any minute. Sure, they haven't done it yet but that doesn't mean they won't, I take a step back but my hit something solid, I turn and see that it's Spock but the closeness of him makes me panic more and I start to walk backwards again until my back hits the wall.

Feeling increasingly like a caged animal I stare at Spock who is looking at me with his head tilted to the side slightly probably in confusion but I don't really care, I just need everyone to go away, there's too many eyes on me. "Too many people, I-I need space, I can't, I don't, I-I" she tried to tell them to go away but she couldn't get the words out and her panic was drawing the attention of more people. My knees are starting to shake because I can't breathe the air in here, and I see Bones looming into my line of sight, he's talking but I can't make out the words before I feel myself slump to the side and I pass out.

I force my way back up to consciousness slowly, it takes far longer than I would have liked but I managed to get my eyes open eventually, blinking blearily at the bright light that assaults my retinas, leaving everything a blur of white for a few seconds until the shapes morph into the med bay that I had passed out in. The key difference is that now I'm sat on a bed now rather than the floor, and I'm no longer wearing my hoody, just jeans and t-shirt. I look down at myself and see my arm resting on my stomach, shockingly it looks straight and the bruises are already yellowing, how long have I been out, that would suggest it's been days. I sit up suddenly but my head spins so much that I nearly topple of the bed, only saved by Bones rushing up out of nowhere and catching me.

Before I'm quite aware of what's going on he's eased me back against the bed and has the scanner from earlier back out again, this time not bothering to ask me just waving it around my head while looking up at something behind me. While he's distracted I sit up slowly and turn so that I can see what he's looking at, to my surprise there is what looks like a massive computer screen displaying various bits of information, her own name is displayed across the top and she sees her temperature, heart rate, blood pressure and more all on the screen.

"Wow, that's cool" she says to herself not really thinking about it and turns back around slightly embarrassed when she realises that Bones is still there and heard her say that.

"I suppose it is from your point of view kid, we use it to monitor patients, didn't you have something like it" Bones says cocking an eyebrow.

"We did but it was just a little screen and you had to have monitors directly on the person to actually read it, and the technology was only about 100 years old tops" Kara said taking in the room properly and noticing just how much technology there was that she didn't recognise.

"Well we can do a lot more now, than could be done then, you didn't still use scalpels then did you, so archaic" Bones muttered.

"Actually" Kara said drawing his attention to her as she pulled up her shirt to show him the still pink scar across her stomach "I had my appendix out last year, it had burst before I went to the hospital, so I ended up with peritonitis which wasn't fun, they told me I nearly died because of it, and yes, they used scalpels, what else would you do?" she said, and she almost wanted to laugh at the look on his face. "What? I thought you were supposed to be a doctor can't take a little bit of a blood and gore" she joked.

"No, not that I have seen more than my fair share of blood and gore, but still the use of knives and tools for surgery went out of date long ago, we use laser scalpels now and you'd never have been left with a scar like that" Bones said looking disgusted.

"Well, a lot of people like scars because they show you've lived and survived, you know that you're still kicking" Kara said.

"I do not understand why whether you are kicking has any relevance to the merit of having scars, Vulcans prefer to make it through life without having been injured in any manner" Spock's voice came from the direction of the door and Kara couldn't help the grin at the way Bones jumped and turned to glare at him.

"Jeez Spock do you have to sneak up on everyone all the time" Bones says.

"It was not my intention to 'sneak up on…" Spock began but Jim cut him off before they got stuck in a loop.

"It's ok Spock, you just made Bones jump, he'll get over it, so Kara how are you feeling now, you seemed panicked earlier, and I wanted to come and check on you" Jim says to her.

"I'm fine, I guess, still hundreds of years into the future and away from my family but I've already managed to make Bones look like he was going to puke so I'm enjoying that" Kara said.

"Good, now Bones tells me that you don't need to stay in the med bay any more so how would you like to come for a tour since it looks like you're going to be here for a while" Jim offers.

"That would be good, as long as pointy isn't taking me, I get the feeling he'd manage to even make this place boring" she says with a grin, and Bones has to hide a smirk again by pretending to be busy checking the monitor.

"No, I had someone else in mind actually." Jim said turning towards the door, where I see that there is a teenage boy stood. "Mr. Chekov, this is Kara Riley, Kara this is Pavel Chekov, and before you say it yes he is human, and I figured since you are both 17 you may get along a bit better, or hate each other who knows".

"Hello Miss Riley" Chekov says stepping forwards and waving shyly at me. A blush creeps up on my face and I can't stop it because he is so cute and shy, his thick Russian accent is so cute. I swing my legs off the bed and jump down onto the floor and walk over offering my hand for him to shake, he takes it and I can't help but notice how warm and strong his hands feel.

"Please call me Kara" I say feeling the blush deepen.

"Come on you two save it for the tour" Bones says waving us towards the door, and just before the doors close I hear him saying "That's gonna come back to bite us" and I chuckle.

"Is Bones always that grumpy?" I ask Pavel.

"The doctor is undeniably a grumpy man, but he clearly likes you because he usually wouldn't let anyone but the captain call him Bones" Chekov says guiding me along the corridors pointing out things at regular intervals.

"What can I say, I'm a delight" I joke and we both laugh, as Chekov turns into a door, I freeze realising this is the room I originally dropped into, there are the same metal walkways and large metal tubes going all around it. Chekov pauses to look at me where I've frozen, and I quickly brush aside the apprehension and walk on in. While Chekov is chattering away about how the enterprise is the best ship in the 'fleet and telling me about technology that I probably have no hope of comprehending a short figure jumps down from the top of a box and I can't help when I stumble back in shock, their face is covered in thick tough looking-grey skin that is wrinkled with two black eyes looking back at her.

"Oh my god, sorry I'm still getting use to people who aren't human, you look kind of adorable by the way in a weird way" I said thinking that he does kind of look cute.

"Ahh don't worry lassie, he won't mind, it's his fault for climbing again when I keep telling him not to" a man says approaching them and I instantly recognise his voice as being the one who had been speaking from the phone earlier.

"Oh good, you're Scotty right?" I said, not sure if I've remembered the name right.

"Yep, that would be me, and who might you be?" Scotty said looking slightly confused.

"Kara, I'm the one who took a nose-dive over there, I heard your voice coming through the phone thing those two-people had" I said pointing over to the area where I think I dropped out of the wormhole earlier.

"Ahh, our time-traveller, well welcome to engineering again, hopefully this visit will be better than the last, now I'm going to have to leave you in the capable hands of Chekov cause someone's got to keep this fine lady running properly" Scotty says smiling and gesturing around at the ship before walking away quickly.

"So, what's next?" I said turning to Pavel.


End file.
